Ouellet Rewarded For Effort

TAMPA - Following a loss in Florida last month, each player was given a DVD of the game and asked to analyze how they played and write it down to give to the coaching staff.

Michel Ouellet, one of Tampa Bay's key offseason acquisitions who was brought in to score goals, wrote down something other than scoring.

'The great thing about Mike, and what he expressed to us in his notes was, 'I'm not going to think about goals, goals, goals, I'm going to think about doing the little things,'' Lightning coach John Tortorella said. 'And I think that is the proper way of doing it.'

Lately, Ouellet has shown signs of improvement in those areas, and Thursday he was rewarded with his first goal of the season.

'I hope scoring the goal is going to help, because I have been thinking about it for a while and it has been a monkey on my back,' Ouellet said. 'I took it off and, hopefully, I'll feel more confident.'

Tortorella said Ouellet has been playing harder away from the puck, winning battles along the wall and chasing down pucks. His goal, which came after he forced a turnover and chased the puck down before sending an attempted pass that bounced in off the skate of Philadelphia D Kimo Timonen, was a direct result of how he has improved in that area.

'He has certainly progressed in those areas as far as the battles, in his wall play and especially in moving his legs,' Tortorella said. 'That's a good sign, and he gets a nice break and he scores the goal. That's good.'

VINNY STANDS UP: Entering Wednesday's game in Washington, C Vinny Lecavalier had seen zero time in the penalty box. Two games later and he's suddenly among the league leaders with 24 penalty minutes thanks to a pair of fights.

Thursday, he got into a tussle with Scott Hartnell as the two started whacking at each other, leading to a fight. Wednesday, he tracked down Washington's Shaone Morrisonn in the third period, leading to 19 minutes in penalties after Morrisonn took a run at Lecavalier, who also got an instigator, a slashing call and a misconduct to go with his fighting major.

'He kind of blind-sided me, and I don't know if he jumped or what, but he came at me to hurt me,' Lecavalier said of Morrisonn, who needed 10 stitches after he hit the ice face-first at the end of the fight.. 'I was frustrated because he came at me like that, so that's kind of why I chased after him a little bit.'

PINK OUT: Saturday's game against Buffalo is part of the 10th season of Hockey Fights Cancer. Staff members will wear pink ties, and fans are encouraged to wear pink in honor of breast cancer survivors.

Fans will also be given pink thunder sticks and special pink hats, and white hats will be sold to raise money for the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

NUTS AND BOLTS: D Brad Lukowich left the game early in the third period after taking a stick to the nose on a follow-through while he lay on the ice. He didn't miss a shift. ... Philadelphia was without D Derian Hatcher and RW Simon Gagne, who was suffering from dizziness after a hit by Florida D Jay Bouwmeester on Wednesday. ... The Lightning organization was honored by the U.S Army with The Department of the Army Certificate of Appreciation for Patriotic Civilian Service for the team's work with the military, including the Hero of the Game presentation recognizing a local member of the military during each game. ... C Chris Gratton registered his 150th career assist in a Lightning uniform.

Erik Erlendsson